Amy Winehouse Panned and Hailed at 2008 V Festival

August 18, 2008 04:47:47 GMT

Amy Winehouse appeared and performed to two different reactions from fans at the two-day music event.

Music festivals can hardly escape eccentricity especially when it involves Amy Winehouse as the featured artist. The singer headlined the V Festival at both Weston Park, Staffordshire and Hylands Park in Chelmsford, Essex on August 16 and 17 respectively, only to be booed and hailed.

Winehouse, gracing the main stage, arrived 20 minutes late on day one and sported messy appearance. Booed by the audience, her performance too was deemed wobbly, since after her arrival she spent few minutes on the stage doing nothing but gazing at the crowd. She then greeted them with, "Hello, alright?" before moving on with her hits. According to NME, the delay of her set was caused by her helicopter being held-up.

On the contrary, Winehouse made an impression on the second day, arriving in better shape and only 10 minutes behind. Singing her popular hits such as "Rehab" and "Back to Black", she closed the set with her cover of The Zutons' "Valerie". She also made time to dedicate the song "Wake Up Alone" to her incarcerated husband Blake Fielder-Civil.

Like each year, the 13th V Festival was marked with bad weather including torrential rain that made the site muddy at times although there was also occasional sunshine. Despite the weather, organizers expected that more than 150,000 people turned up for the event during the two days event.

Beside Amy's lateness, the festival also saw several memorable occasions including the reunion of New Wave band Squeeze, The Chemical Brothers' laser show and Travis' frontman Fran Healy losing his wedding ring mid the performance. The Verve and Muse each closed the festival with their respective legs. The full line-up of this year's event and the photos from the occasion can be found on VFestival.com.